The Vertical Animals
Meet the humans in the Cherai Tails Web of Kindness. All of these people have different roles, some full-time, some part-time, some when they can.
Of course, there are hundreds more who have donated, fostered, adopted, loaned, sponsored and shared!
Peshna
Founder
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Peshna (and the original Tail; Jangri) started this whole thing in 2017. Upset by the plight of the community animals she decided to DO something - and it has been a constant uphill battle since that day, intermingled with countless miracles.
Everytime Cherai Tails has been on the brink of collapse, we have pulled through, because we have never given up, and neither have the kind individuals who support us.
"We live on stardust." says Peshna.
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Nowadays, Peshna's focus is on caring for the insiders at HQ, preparing nutritious meals for all the animals we care for and the daily grind of fundraising - but when she does makes the rounds to the community dogs, they all cry with excitement at the sight of her. Peshna is the glue that holds Cherai Tails together and her sheer grit and determination have gotten us this far.
Sunil
Co-Founder
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Sunil is a Cherai local whom the community dogs adore. He is the pied piper of strays, as whenever he drives down the beach all the Tails come out of their hiding places wagging to greet him.
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Sunil co-founded Cherai Tails alongside Pesh, and was heavily involved with community outreach and animal care for the first 5 years of it's operations. He has since moved to Punjab but still remains close to our hearts, and all the Tails love it when he comes for a visit!
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Aneesh
Driver + Animal Caregiver
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Aneesh is the only paid staff member of Cherai Tails, as he works full-time with us as an animal chauffeur and caregiver. When he is not taking care of the insiders at the beach house, he is doing emergency call-outs, ferrying canine passengers to and fro, grooming (himself and the Tails) running errands of all kinds, and also feeding strays in mulitple areas.
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Aneesh is loved by all of our Tails, even the ones who find it hard to trust humans.
Dileep
Bookkeeper & Driver
Dileep joined our team after lockdown as a driver and when Peshna became sick he filled in as the Manager of Cherai Tails. Even though he is not a dog-person, he took care of everything from managing accounts to transporting Tails. He is now working in the government hospital and is no longer with us, but for several years he was a reliable and integral part of our Web of Kindness.
Aimee
Volunteer
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Aimee manages the website and facilitates some of the adoptions, and whenever she is in Kerala she helps with the day-to-day of our Tails!
"Cherai Beach has always felt like a second home to me, and that is purely because of the Tails and the Web of Kindess that surrounds them. Nothing makes you feel more loved then returning after one year and having all the Tails jump all over you like a long lost friend. They have my heart and I am invested for life."
She has been with Cherai Tails since it's conception and will be there until the end!
Dr Giresh
Vet
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Dr Giresh is a vet at the government hospital - he treats street dogs with the same compassion and care as pets and breeds, which is not common.
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He always tries to save a life and we have relied on his fairness and perseverence in many situations.
Sinead
Volunteer
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Sinead is a lifelong friend of Peshna and is the point of contact for all of our supporters in Ireland.
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She has done an immense amount of fundraising and content creation for the website, and she comes to Kerala whenever she can.
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"I fall in love with a different dog on the street every year when I come to Cherai, and I will keep coming back as long as they are there!"
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Sinead also rescued our Rua, and is sponsoring her until we find her an adopter.
Dilip
Vet Nurse
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Dilip is a vet nurse who works for the government animal hospital.
He has always helped us with call-outs to Tails in need, and charges us very little to visit our streeties and to administer vaccines on site.
He has been a great help over the years and has saved the lives of many Tails.
Vimal
Chemist
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Vimal and his team operate a pharmacy in Cherai, and they always give us medicines and supplies on deferred payment when the we don't have the funds. You can imagine how helpful this has been to us through the tougher times!
Surya
Volunteer
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Surya is a local student who's concern for a street dog in 2021 led him to Peshna. Now when he is not studying he helps us find adopters, he is great at chatting to the community to get them on side, and he does call-outs to dogs in need.
Mica
Volunteer
French Mica was introduced to us by a mutual friend, and he was our first 'official' volunteer. He spent his first time in India building us fences and doing a huge amount of much-needed painting!
Krishna Prasoon
Volunteer
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Krish reached out to Cherai Tails because a stray he cares for had puppies on his fish farm during the monsoon. We helped him get the pups adopted and since then he has volunteered for us whenever he can.
He is very reliable and we trust him completely with trickier tasks, as he always finds a way to figure out the best course of action.
Sanal
Volunteer
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Sanal is a community feeder who reached out to us in 2022 as he needed help with the ever-growing number of strays he was trying to support.
Since then 2022 he has been a very good volunteer, and whenever he is not working he accompanies Aneesh in jobs that require more than one person. The dogs intuitively trust his peacefulness and he is a huge asset to Cherai Tails.
Gail
Volunteer
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Gail is a regular to Cherai and she hosts annual yoga retreats here. When she is not looking after her yoga students she is caring for our Tails, and when back in the UK she helps us with fundraising.
Dippy
Volunteer
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Dippy (and Amul) came to us to adopt a dog, and he ended up taking home our Caramel. Since then he as remained connected to Cherai Tails and whenever he is not at university he helps us with transportation.
No journey is too long for Dippy and he has chaperoned adopted dogs on long distance trains all over South India. He also feeds our community dogs and is a very attentive and caring person.
Petra
Volunteer
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Petra hails from Switzerland and blew in out of nowhere to help us at Cherai Tails. She has since returned to Kerala 3 times to care for our insiders, report on our community dogs, and offer us a much-needed extra pair of hands!
Mica
Volunteer
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Mica was a Couchsurfer who came on holiday to Kerala in 2023, and he ended up spending his entire trip dog-sitting for us instead!
Dr Sonika
Advisor
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Dr Sonika and her husband are local vets and they have always sterilised dogs for us at a heavily discounted rate. She always gave us timely vet appointments to see our street dogs, as opposed to waiting hours and hours at the government vets to be seen - which can be very stressful for strays.
She has since moved to Canada and whenever we have a dog with a complicated medical condition we send her photos and she advises us.